My parents really like all 6 of the following schools and want them on my list, but I feel like my list so far is already pretty long so I’m looking for recs on which schools to cut! I’m hoping to cut 1+ from each of the two groups of schools.
In general, I’m a very laid back person. Student happiness and support from a community are really important to me. Right now major wise I’m leaning on comp sci as a sort of back-up option, and I want to explore very very different areas (like writing and business and film), so having a good base in comp sci while also being strong in other areas is super important. For comp sci, I’d be interested in AI, and possibly cognitive science.
Cornell, Columbia, CMU: very reach-ish schools, good comp sci, stressful workload.
UMich, UVA, UNC: Really good, larger state schools
Cornell: Ithaca sounds sooo isolated and the weather sounds terrible, but a significant amount of ppl from my school get in every year
Columbia: I like NYC a lot. I’ve heard some pretty bad things about workload, apparently students here feel pressured to take much more courses than normal, cutthroat?
Carnegie Mellon: stellar comp sci, but you really have to know what you’re going into. I heard it’s not cutthroat like Columbia but people are very study oriented
UMich: A lot larger, very strong in comp sci as well as other areas. Ann Arbor is super nice!
UVA/UNC: don’t know that much about them, but I liked their campuses + the vibes there. UVA is a more comfortable size, and more greek. UNC’s comp sci is slightly better I think.
Suggestions?
Is financial aid a consideration? Have you checked their NPC?
I would cut schools that you know typically don’t provide that much aid or enough aid for you to be able to go (ie if you need a full ride to attend a school and you know that school is already a reach you cut it from your list. Even if you do get in the aid will most likely not be enough). Next I’d consider the overall location/environment. For example for Cornell you said you don’t like how isolated it is. If this is important to you then remove it from your list, even if so many people from your school get in, that doesn’t mean you’ll enjoy the atmosphere. I would also add some safeties if you haven’t already, just in case. What I did to narrow my list was make a pro/cons list. If I found more cons then it was cut.
Agree with having your parents run Net Price Calculators to make sure they are all affordable. Dropping the most expensive one in each group isn’t a bad way to go if you have no strong personal preference.
I’m not sure any of the ones you mention are considered “laid back.” What are some of the schools on your own list that you are actually happy to be applying to?
Financial aid isn’t a consideration, which is very, very fortunate.
@AroundHere Schools I am considering which are more “laid back” are Vanderbilt, Brown, Dartmouth (?), Wash U, Duke. I wanted to add Tulane but my parents won’t let me go down that south, haha. I wanted to also add Pomona and UCLA, but my parents also don’t want me going West Coast (I’m in the Northeast). Do you have any recommendations? That category is kind of top heavy. I’m ok w/ a higher workload, but not w/ cutthroat schools and schools with not great mental health support systems.